Wednesday
Jul082009
Immigration Reform Needed Now, Says Council On Foreign Relations
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 1:45PM
By Mariko Lamb - Talk Radio News Service
The Council on Foreign Relations’ Independent Task Force, a bipartisan group of leaders in immigration, education, homeland security, labor, business, and human rights, issued a U.S. Immigration Policy Report Wednesday to urge President Obama and Congress to adopt new immigration reform legislation.
“I simply don’t see how we can say that we are a country of diversity, a welcoming country, a country that respects the worth and dignity of the individual, and not have a comprehensive, depthful, thoughtful immigration program,” said Thomas McLarty, Task Force Co-Chair and former White House Chief of Staff. He assured that “getting our immigration policy right strengthens our economy.”
Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the U.S. has not made progress in immigration reform because “there are people who have benefited from exploiting cheap labor and undocumented workers, and they have a vested interest in it not getting fixed.”
Project Director Edward Alden and others on the Task Force emphasized the economic contributions that immigrants bring to the U.S. “There is often this very static notion of the economy that anyone using services is inevitably a drain, without thinking about the contributions that these people are bringing to the U.S. economy,
which is extraordinary,” said Alden.
In March, the Task Force reintroduced the DREAM Act to Congress. This act provides for a system of earned legalization for illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. The report also addresses the need to balance national security with acceptance of immigrants, enforce a stricter employer verification system of
employees, expand and fine-tune border enforcement and establish an independent commission to streamline the immigration system.
The Council on Foreign Relations’ Independent Task Force, a bipartisan group of leaders in immigration, education, homeland security, labor, business, and human rights, issued a U.S. Immigration Policy Report Wednesday to urge President Obama and Congress to adopt new immigration reform legislation.
“I simply don’t see how we can say that we are a country of diversity, a welcoming country, a country that respects the worth and dignity of the individual, and not have a comprehensive, depthful, thoughtful immigration program,” said Thomas McLarty, Task Force Co-Chair and former White House Chief of Staff. He assured that “getting our immigration policy right strengthens our economy.”
Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the U.S. has not made progress in immigration reform because “there are people who have benefited from exploiting cheap labor and undocumented workers, and they have a vested interest in it not getting fixed.”
Project Director Edward Alden and others on the Task Force emphasized the economic contributions that immigrants bring to the U.S. “There is often this very static notion of the economy that anyone using services is inevitably a drain, without thinking about the contributions that these people are bringing to the U.S. economy,
which is extraordinary,” said Alden.
In March, the Task Force reintroduced the DREAM Act to Congress. This act provides for a system of earned legalization for illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. The report also addresses the need to balance national security with acceptance of immigrants, enforce a stricter employer verification system of
employees, expand and fine-tune border enforcement and establish an independent commission to streamline the immigration system.
Reader Comments (2)
Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, are fueling this growth. I'm not talking about environmental degradation or resource depletion. I'm talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty in America.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled "Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America." To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management, especially immigration policy. Our policies of encouraging high rates of immigration are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
The U.N. ranks the U.S. with eight third world countries - India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia and China - as accounting for fully half of the world’s population growth by 2050. It's absolutely imperative that our population be stabilized, and that's impossible without dramatically reining in immigration, both legal and illegal.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com where you can read the preface, join in my blog discussion and, of course, purchase the book if you like. (It's also available at Amazon.com.)
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph. I just don't know how else to inject this new perspective into the immigration debate without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
Author, "Five Short Blasts"
The eugenics cause is a distraction. It puzzles me that population growth and other eugenics priorities seem to stay at the front of the decision making dynamics affecting citizenship, identity and immigration. If we are as overpopulated as some claim then there should be some pragmatic level of resignation over movement limitations and identity mandates. I think the direction and the path we are currently on is shortsighted. The current path calls us to continually lower Western standards of living based based on a world view affecting, say, China or India, where dehumanization is the standard for societal development; while hunger and deprivation is a societal pandemic. I think it is important to take a balanced approach and not to forget that decision makers get to absorb this fallout to the point of it affecting their personal humanity.
The plan for a North American Community is misguided in many ways. It's deliberation to squelch public discussion points guiltily to the intuitive knowledge that citizens are not going to swallow it whole or even in bite sized chunks based on the end result. It would take a lot of humility from world leaders to reorganize an agenda where we can find our way without Kenseyian economics, and to include people in progress where everyone gets a win.